


Artificial

by haku23



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: M/M, robot!Steve
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-06-05
Updated: 2012-06-04
Packaged: 2017-11-06 21:50:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/423643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haku23/pseuds/haku23
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve was dead, there was no denying that. But that didn't mean Tony had to accept it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Artificial

**Author's Note:**

> Basically I was sitting up late at night and tried to think of the saddest thing I could and landed on Steve being dead and mad with grief Tony making an android of him. This is an AU of course blending pretty much whatever plot points of every canon I can remember so there may be references to things that happened in the comics but not the movies, or just something like mentioning a human Jarvis while using an AI one as well.

It hadn't been hard to make. Tony had written other AI and built tiny things and huge things all from scratch so it hadn't been hard to make, from a technical aspect. The rest of it on the other hand had been. The-his-its-his? Facial features, his skin, everything that gave the appearance of humanity hadn't exactly been a walk in the park to make and tweak. The Iron Man had taken a long time but the armour didn't require eyelashes or lips or eyes. It didn't need to appear human. This did. This body lying on a bed getting last minute scans done on it did. He knew it was crazy, he knew it because JARVIS had told him that it would be unwise, he knew it because Pepper had given him that sad look reserved for people beyond any help she could give them. So he knew he was crazy.

 

“Scan complete, sir.”

 

“Fire it up, JARVIS.”

 

“If I may-”

 

“No. I...” he pushed a hand through his greasy hair, “I know, okay?”

 

JARVIS informed him that everything was up and running fine but there was always one last test, the one that had failed too many times to count before today. He placed a hand on its-his shoulder(it was slightly warm) and shook it.

 

He opened his eyes-azure. It'd been a struggle trying to find exactly the right shade of blue but he'd managed and now they focused on him for a moment before focusing completely. His brow furrowed like he'd seen Steve do so many times after waking up after a unplanned for nap in the study then he smiled.

 

“Tony?”

 

“Yeah. Yeah, it's me,” he knew it wasn't real, knew that that face, that voice, that hair had all been manufactured by human hands yet his voice shook anyway as if he'd really succeeded at bringing him back to life.

 

There was a rustling of bedsheets(he'd wanted everything to seem as normal as possible) preceding the android sitting up in bed. “Is everything...okay?”

 

He cleared his throat and tried to sound less like he would burst into tears at any given moment, “yeah. No, it's fine, I'm just...that thing that people who don't sleep get.”

 

“Tired?”

 

“That. Yeah.”

 

“How long have you been awake for, Tony?”

 

His hand went through his hair again, “not long. Uh...3 days.”

 

“Tony.”

 

He opened his mouth but no words came out-how he'd said it, the intonation, the granny Steve 'I am very disappointed in you' look, everything was exactly as he'd remembered it and he was caught between wanting to avoid said look and wanting to meet it head on, let it envelope him like a hug. He settled on staring at the bed frame instead. NotSteve's hand rested on his knee. Squeezed just the right amount to be comforting.

 

“You should get some rest,” firm but not a command. There was gentleness there, affection maybe and worry-fake emotions programmed into an even faker shell but it was good enough to take the edge off of his loneliness and grief at the very least.

 

“Yeah, I'll just...if you need anything just ask.”

 

“Sure, Tony,” NotSteve said with a smile that says he won't be waking Tony up any time soon. Tony would be worried that he'll get into trouble while he slept except that he'd put the house on lockdown, the other Avengers' numbers are inexplicably disconnected and all incoming calls go through JARVIS first rather than letting just anyone pick up the phone and answer a ringing phone. There's no evidence that anything happened to Steve, no evidence of his death or that they've even had to assemble in the last two weeks. Everything is taken care of-he won't know he's an android.

 

When Tony dropped onto the cot in the back corner of the workshop he kept an eye on how NotSteve acted, watched him pat the robots-they knew something was off but Steve wouldn't-then quietly make his way out of the lab.

 

“Keep me posted on him, JARVIS.”

 

“Of course, sir.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I can't guarantee and update schedule because I'm horrible at that kind of thing but hopefully it won't be 6 months down the line...Honestly I'm not sure how I feel about this fic at all but there's no harm in just writing for the heck of it, right?


End file.
